The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
The following is the introduction to the article: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of illness and fatality. Diseases such as coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction and subsequent congestive heart failure pose a serious problem to much of the population in the Unites States and all over the world. The heart’s compromised function that results from the above conditions is so influential as the heart has little capacity to repair its lost tissue; once the cardiac myocytes are destroyed its effects are amplified by a drastic decrease in cardiac function. Until recently with the advent of stem cell technology, researchers believed that once cardiac myocytes are destroyed they could never be regenerated and thus little could be done to reverse the adverse effects of cardiac muscle atrophy (Laflamme and Murry 2005). This dogma, that the heart is a post mitotic non-regenerating organ and that cardiac myocytes are terminally differentiated cells that participate in cardiac function all throughout life, introduced more than 60 years ago, is being challenged as the results of different experimental and clinical work are showing capacity for cardiac tissue hyperplasia This paper will explore the various kinds of stem cells used in an attempt to regenerate cardiac tissue.
Recommended Citation
Friedlander, C. (2010). Cardiac Tissue Regeneration - The Use of Stem Cells. The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences, 4(1). Retrieved from https://touroscholar.touro.edu/sjlcas/vol4/iss1/2
